"Our apartment's nice, but our building is typical of tall New York City residences. I understand my landlord saved a bundle on the paint after prisoners at Attica rioted because the color was considered too inhumane. And I'm not sure it's true, but I've heard the carpeting was pulled up from the floors of a nursing home sometime after a tragic fire took the lives of most of the patients there. It *is* a little singed, but the smoke smell and discloration are an improvement over the original. My landlord owns many buildings just like this throughout the city. He's considered one of the better New York landlords. The crack in the mirror? That's only on "special" floors like ours."

Jeffrey Zeldman at the Mirror Project.